Heisig's idea that the 'infant primative' is an abbreviated form of 子 doesn't work that well for me. So far I'm just remembering (short term remembering!) the primative. So I was wondering if anyone has a nice story for this one.

Cheers,

Well, it resembles an upside down 子. When a baby is born, it come's out of its mother's womb upside down (head first).

This might not fit "infant" exactly (and be careful to keep it separate from "newborn babe"), but I think it makes more sense and is easier to remember than top hat and elbow.

Thanks. Stupidly I didn't see that! Prefer that to the description in the book. That will do nicely.

Cheers,

[ファブリス]

Nice one Matthew.

The image I used is that of side-view of a "pacifier" (in American) or "dummy" in British. The elbow looks like the handle.

I have an image of an infant wearing a top hat. It's so big that it comes down to his elbow. So, in the image, in my mind, I can see the black silk top hat, and the little baby elbow and forarm and fist going over to the right. I think of the other primative as "child" vs "infant".

i'm liking the pacifier image and the birthing infant also is vivid. because of the elbow i've been imagining an infant popeye with his bulging biceps and sailor cap.

synewave Wrote:Heisig's idea that the 'infant primative' is an abbreviated form of 子 doesn't work that well for me. So far I'm just remembering (short term remembering!) the primative. So I was wondering if anyone has a nice story for this one.

Cheers,

I think it is wrong to think of stories for the *primitives* in principle. They should be remembered using visual memory only. One should avoid trying to explain component parts of any primitives. When a primitive is a combination of other elements, you should make an effort to ignore that and memorize it as a whole. It ensures much better and faster recollection.
This might not exactly go in line with Heisig's suggestions (he does deconstruct quite a few primitives himself), but for me at least, and for some other people from what I've heard, this makes the whole process far more efficient, because you are using both visual and associative memory to reinforce each other.
It took me some time to realize this, but when I did, my results have really improved.

This really has no bearing on the real subject at hand, but I figured "just so you knew" sort of a deal... USA uses pacifier, Britain uses "dummy", and while Canada generally wobbles back and forth between US and British phraseology, on this instance we Canuckians call it a "soother".

Like I said, no real relevance, but... *shrug*

laxxy Wrote:I think it is wrong to think of stories for the *primitives* in principle. They should be remembered using visual memory only.

I'd never really thought about this before, but I agree based on my experience. May not work for some primitives, though, especially if they aren't used in very many kanji (i.e. not much practice for the visual memory).